4.58 million people, the population of Dubai at the end of 2025, with a growth of 7.5%

Coinciding with the adoption of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defence, and Chairman of the Executive Council of the Emirate of Dubai, of the real-time census project and monitoring population growth in Dubai, “Digital Dubai”, through the Dubai Data and Statistics Corporation, announced that the emirate’s population reached four million and 580 thousand people by the end of 2025, an increase of about 332 thousand people compared to the end of 2024, with a growth rate of 7.5%, according to an advanced digital methodology that relies on administrative records, smart systems, and real-time data. The current population growth rate of 7.5% is one of the highest population growth rates in the emirate

New strategic station

Director General of Digital Dubai, Hamad Obaid Al Mansouri, said: “The adoption of the real-time census and population growth monitoring project represents a new strategic milestone in Dubai’s journey towards establishing a global model for digital government based on data and artificial intelligence.”

He added, “Data is no longer just a statistical output, but has become a national infrastructure and a strategic asset that supports decision-making, raises the efficiency of planning, and enhances the ability to anticipate the future,” pointing out that this project embodies Dubai’s vision of employing advanced technologies to build an interconnected digital system that relies on reliable and real-time data, allowing government agencies to develop more accurate policies, more proactive services, and more efficient investments, and enhances the emirate’s readiness to continue the path of sustainable growth in various sectors.

He continued: “What has been achieved today is the result of an integrated system based on coordination of efforts between government agencies, digital trust, and continuous investment in data and artificial intelligence, which are the foundations through which Dubai continues to consolidate its position as a city that leads the future, and transforms data into economic and development value that benefits humans, society, and the economy.”

Dynamics of the emirate

For his part, CEO of the Dubai Data and Statistics Corporation, Younus Al Nasser, said that monitoring population growth in Dubai is, in essence, a vivid picture of a strategic landscape that embodies the emirate’s dynamism and its economic vitality and activity in all fields, as population growth reached 7.5%, driven by real GDP growth of 5.4% in 2025 compared to 2024.

He added: “This also applies to important indicators such as tourist attractiveness, as Dubai received 19.6 million international tourists in 2025, an increase of 5.0% compared to 2024. In this context, the population increase does not only represent a statistical figure, but rather reflects the expansion of the labor market, increased demand for services, and improved level of well-being and quality of life. This growth contributes to directing public policies, urban planning, infrastructure development, and health and educational services, ensuring a balance between economic growth, individual well-being and quality of life in a rapidly developing global city.”

Al Nasser continued: “Dubai is characterized as a city full of activity, and it is an economic center that millions aspire to live and work in. The number of passengers traveling through Dubai airports in 2025 reached about 96 million passengers, an increase of 4.9% compared to the previous year. On the other hand, large numbers of people come to Dubai, coming from the emirates of the country and from all over the world.”

He pointed out that the 2025 figures indicate that the average number of people present in the Emirate of Dubai during the peak hours of the day will rise significantly to reach six million and 392 thousand individuals, indicating that this large number comes from the sum of the usual resident population with more than one million and 812 thousand individuals who are in the emirate temporarily, most of them for work or tourism purposes, in addition to students, visitors to shopping centers and the like.

Competencies and investments

This population vitality represents confirmation that Dubai continues to consolidate its position as one of the most prominent economic and population attraction cities in the world, thanks to its advanced investment environment, advanced infrastructure, and policies that support business and talent.

The emirate’s population growth reflects its ability to attract talent and investments from around the world, so Dubai is among the fastest growing cities in population compared to cities with a high economy. International comparisons show that Dubai competes with major international cities in terms of population attraction rates, demographic diversity, and economic activity.

The Dubai Data and Statistics Corporation, affiliated with Digital Dubai, works in accordance with international standards, methodologies and recommendations in the field of data and statistics, and at the same time takes into account the privacy of the emirate and the additional efforts required by its dynamic nature for information monitoring.

In this context, the Foundation harnesses digital data to monitor the integrated landscape of the population reality and the movement of individuals in the emirate, and presents it to decision makers, planners and investors in a way that supports understanding population patterns and making informed decisions. Hence the importance of calculating the movement of daily arrivals during peak hours, whose number is equivalent to about 40% of the usual resident population in the emirate, in addition to the resident population, as this has a direct impact on infrastructure planning, transportation, and various types of life services.

“Dubai Residents Now” project

The “Dubai Population Now” project represents an unprecedented qualitative leap through its adoption of an advanced approach based on administrative records and smart systems, as the Dubai Data and Statistics Corporation has integrated artificial intelligence (AI) techniques in analyzing population data and linking it to the real-time population clock of the Emirate of Dubai as the most prominent innovative outputs resulting from the project, which contributes to predicting demographic trends, understanding patterns of movement and residence, and improving urban planning and public services.

Dubai residents throughout history

Throughout its history, Dubai has witnessed rapid population transformations, linked to the stages of economic and urban development that the emirate has gone through.
In the past, the population census relied on traditional methods, as 7 population censuses were carried out during the period from 1975 to 2005. Today, Dubai has moved to the concept of an instantaneous census based on continuously flowing data. This transformation reflects a qualitative shift in understanding the population reality, as the growth rate today is measured in real time compared to previous years when data was updated at long intervals of time, which enhances the accuracy of planning and the speed of response to the variables of the population reality.
The current population growth rate of 7.5% is one of the highest population growth rates in the emirate, and it is reminiscent of major stages of population growth, as the 1980 census witnessed the highest rate in the history of the emirate at 8.2%.
Going back to the 19th century, specifically the year 1881, we find through many literature and documents that the population of Dubai did not exceed 12 thousand people in that year, and the population of Dubai witnessed exceptional growth over a period of 144 years, increasing by about 380 times, exceeding 4.58 million people by the end of 2025.